Dancing with Ginny
by sbmcneil
Summary: Harry thought he hated dancing. It took Ginny to change his mind.


Harry looked around the beautifully decorated ballroom. He had always loved Hogwarts at Christmas time, but he had never seen it look so beautiful. The frosty, silvery walls sparkled in the candlelight and the ropes of ivy and mistletoe interspersed with fairy lights made the Great Hall look incredibly festive.

The Weird Sisters were playing on stage and most of his friends were dancing along with the music. Harry had to admit, it did look like fun. He glanced over at his best mate, Ron. Unfortunately for Harry, Ron was still grumbling about Viktor Krum. Phrases such as "Ruddy Pumpkin Head" and "Why can't she see" were floating around the table.

Parvati and Padma, his and Ron's dates for the Yule Ball, had deserted them long ago so he and Ron were the only two sitting around their large table. Most of the tables were deserted with students either dancing or exploring the outdoors.

"Ron!"

Ron turned and glared at Harry for breaking his concentration. "What?"

"I'm going to get up and walk around for a bit," Harry explained.

Ron grunted and went back to glaring at Hermione and Viktor dancing along with a large group of students from Durmstrang.

Shaking his head at his best mate, Harry walked the perimeter of the dance floor.

"Harry!" Ginny Weasley, flushed and laughing, popped out of the crowd on the dance floor. "Do you want to come and dance with us?"

Harry looked to where she was gesturing, he could see Neville, Seamus, and Lavender all dancing around. "I don't know, Ginny. I'm not very good at dancing."

"So? We're just bashing about to the music, I don't think what any of us are doing could be called dancing." Ginny giggled as she had to duck out of the way of her brother George moving wildly around the floor.

Laughing, Harry let Ginny drag him towards the group of Gryffindors. Ginny started dancing gracefully to the music and Harry looked around awkwardly. Neville was moving around in place while Lavender and Seamus were dancing together.

Seeing that he was not dancing, Ginny reached out for his hands and guided him into grooving with the music. After a few minutes, she smiled, "That's it, Harry. You've got the hang of it."

"Do you like the Weird Sisters?" Neville asked as the three of them bounced around to the music.

"I like what I've heard here tonight," Harry said shyly. "I've never really heard them before."

"Really?" Ginny asked in amazement. "What kind of music do you usually listen to?"

Harry shrugged as he stumbled into Neville. After righting himself he explained, "My relatives don't let me have a radio or anything so I just hear what they are listening to. Some of the stuff my cousin listens to is horrid. My aunt listens to '70s or '80s music and my uncle listens to classical music. The only time I've listened to Wizarding music is at the Burrow."

Horrified, Ginny said, "We'll have to fix that. The Weird Sisters are my favourite group."

The five of them danced along to several more songs. Fred and George danced by and joined with for a song with their dates, Angelina and Katie. Dean and his date were dancing near Lavender and Seamus leaving Harry with Ginny and Neville. Harry was having a great time. He waved to Hermione who looked shocked to see him on the dance floor. In fact, he was having such a great time, he forgot to look around for Cho.

A slow song started and Harry stopped moving. "I'll go sit this out."

"No, mate," Neville said. "I've been dancing since the start of the ball. You dance with Ginny, I'm going to go sit down."

Harry looked shyly over at Ginny as Neville headed off the dance floor. "D-do you want to dance?"

Nodding, Ginny held out her hands. Holding her a bit stiffly around the waist, Harry started moving slowly to the music.

The dance floor had cleared out a bit with the change in music. He looked down at Ginny with a smile, "You're a really good dancer."

She blushed. "Thanks. Bill taught me when I was little. We would listen to music together and he would dance with me. You missed it this summer, we had an impromptu dance a few days before you came. Bill and Charlie had a few of their friends over and Lee Jordan and Angelina had come over. It was so much fun."

Harry listened with a smile as she described the scene. He remembered Ron telling him that Ginny never shut up, he had never seen that part of her before, but he found that he liked this part of her personality.

"That sounds great," Harry sighed. "My relatives never do anything fun like that."

"What do you mean?" Ginny asked curiously as she looked up at him.

Harry shrugged a bit self-consciously. "My cousin Dudley has friends over sometimes, but they just play computer games or watch the telly. They don't hang out with my aunt and uncle."

Ginny wrinkled her nose at that thought. She wasn't entirely certain what a computer or telly was, but she thought they didn't sound like too much fun. "Your relatives don't sound like they are much fun."

Blushing, she gasped, "I'm sorry, Harry. That wasn't very nice of me."

Harry laughed, "That's okay, Ginny. You're right. They aren't very much fun."

The music slowly died away and the band announced a break. Harry moved awkwardly away from Ginny. He looked over towards the table and saw Ron and Hermione arguing. Sighing, he looked down at Ginny. To his surprise, he found that he would rather stay with her on the dance floor. Unfortunately, he knew that wasn't fair to Neville.

Gesturing over towards his bickering best friends, "I better make sure they don't kill each other."

Ginny followed his gestured and nodded her understanding. Before he left the dance floor, Harry reached out and grabbed Ginny's hand. "Thanks for dancing with me. I had fun."

"Me, too," Ginny replied squeezing his hand.

When Harry rejoined Ron just as Hermione stormed off in the other direction.

"Where have you been?" Ron barked at Harry.

Harry gestured to the dance floor, "I was just…" He trailed off when he realized Ron wasn't listening to him.

"Come on, mate." Harry said. "Let's go for a walk outside."

As he followed a still grumbling Ron outside, Harry looked back at the dance floor. Ginny was still dancing with Neville and a few other friends. Shrugging, Harry followed his best mate outside and tried to cheer him up.

* * *

><p>Ginny looked around the gloomy drawing room of Grimmauld Place. It was a quiet evening, there was no Order meeting tonight so there were not many people coming and going. Sirius, Remus, Bill and Tonks were sitting off in one corner talking. Her mother had gone up to bed saying she was tired from spending the day at the hospital with her father. Hermione had gone up to work on homework, leaving Ginny, Ron, and Harry playing Exploding Snap. Ginny wasn't entirely certain where the twins had gotten off to, but she hadn't seen them for a while.<p>

The sound of Ron's cards exploding brought Ginny's attention back to the game. She threw her cards down and looked at her companions. Ron was laughing about his near miss. Harry on the other hand had thrown down his cards and was rubbing his forehead. She noticed he tended to do that when his scar was hurting.

Making up her mind, she got up and walked over to the other group. "Sirius, do you have a radio?"

"A radio?" Sirius looked around the room as though he expected one to jump out at him. "I had one when I was younger."

He stood up, "Let me go check, I'll be right back."

Within a few minutes, he was back with an older style radio. After setting it up on the shelves along the wall, Ginny tuned in the WWN. She smiled when she heard the latest Hobgoblin's song.

"Bill, can you move the furniture?" Ginny asked her oldest brother with a smile.

With a flick of his wand, Bill moved the furniture to the edge of the room and rolled up the carpet. Smiling at his sister, he conjured up a small disco ball and attached it to the ceiling.

Ginny turned up the music and pulled her oldest brother out onto the makeshift dance floor. The music seemed to act as a catalyst, Hermione and the twins soon joined them as did Hestia Jones who had just arrived at Headquarters.

This time, Harry did not hesitate. He joined in the group on the dance floor. He was thrilled to see a big smile on Sirius's face. To his surprise, Tonks could actually dance. She did tend to stumble a bit, but they all had great fun.

When Harry ended up next to Ginny, he leaned over and whispered, "Thanks, Gin. I don't know that I've ever seen Sirius laugh so much."

They looked over to where Sirius and Remus were trying to demonstrate some sort of dance to Bill and Tonks. Fred and George were laughing hysterically at their efforts.

Remus gave up with a laugh, "James was always the best dancer out of all of us."

"Yeah, he tried to teach the rest of us, with varying results," Sirius reminisced. "One holiday, we snuck out to a Muggle dance club in London. He was one of the best dancers there, all of these girls were vying to dance with him."

"Lily wasn't too impressed with the girls, but she loved dancing with James." Remus said with a smile for Harry.

Harry smiled and drank in stories of his parents. The music changed and a slow song came on. Without even thinking about it, Harry turned to Ginny and held out his hand. She joined him on the dance floor, while Sirius danced with Hestia, Remus with Tonks, and Bill and Hermione.

"Thanks, Ginny," Harry said softly. "This was a great idea."

She smiled, "Your welcome. Everyone just seemed so down, I thought this would be fun."

He twirled her and Ginny laughed, "You've been practicing."

He blushed, "That radio you gave me at the end of the last term was a life-saver. I would listen to music and yes I tried dancing a bit. Hedwig thought I was a bit ridiculous, but it was fun."

She smiled up at him, "Good. I'm glad it helped."

Looking around the room, Harry snickered a bit. "I don't think Ron is enjoying himself much."

Ginny looked around and caught the look on her brother's face. "He never learns, does he? If he wants to dance with Hermione, he'll have to ask her."

* * *

><p>Harry slowly snuck up on his target. The sky was a beautiful clear blue with very few clouds while the air was crisp and cold preserving the slight layer of ice over a much deeper layer of snow. Not taking his eyes off of his target, he knelt down and gathered up some snow, packing it firmly beneath his hands.<p>

Pausing for the right time, Harry stood and let his snowballs fly. To his delight, most of them hit it primary target, Bill while still others hit Remus. Once the battle had begun, the still morning air was filled with laughter and taunts between the opposing forces. To Harry surprise it had been Bill who had suggested the snowball fight. The teams had quickly formed – Bill, Fleur, and Remus against Harry, Ron, and Ginny .

Snow and laughter were soon flying through the air. The teams quickly broke down as Ron started pelting his sister with snowballs. He and Bill briefly allied to get Ginny.

Ever gallant, Harry came to Ginny's rescue while Fleur and Remus pelted everyone. In the end, no clear winner could be declared as they were all wet and covered with snow.

Fleur leaned up and whispered into Bill's ear. He smiled down at her before turning to the others. "Fleur and I are going inside to warm up."

Harry noticed a slightly disgruntled look cross Ginny's face before she nodded, "Okay, Bill. I'm going to stay out here for a while."

Remus also excused himself leaving the three youngest on their own. Harry turned to the others and had to hide a smile at Ron's slightly vacant expression as he watched Bill and Fleur head back to the house. Looking over at his other companion, he was struck anew at how beautiful she looked. He cursed himself again for not noticing what was right in front of him until it was too late. How could he not have noticed how amazing, fun and beautiful she was?

He felt a little dazed himself as she turned her smile on him, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

Blushing and hoping she would think it was because of the cold, he replied, "Sure that sounds like fun."

The three of them kept up a steady stream of talk and laughter as they ending up making an entire family of snow people.

"They look really good," Bill remarked as he reemerged from the house. Ginny beamed at his praise.

"Thanks, Bill," She said as he walked over and threw an arm over her shoulders. He dropped a kiss on the top of her head. He looked over the family they had built and pulled his wand.

Harry watched in confusion for a moment until Ginny laughed and said, "The dad needs a black top hat."

Obediently, Bill conjured up first the top hat and then made the other modifications Ginny asked of him including a large purple hat for the mother and scarves for all of them. He even coloured the snow different colours to look like clothes and hair.

"They look good don't they?"

Harry turned to his best mate, "They do. This was fun."

"Do you want to skate on the pond for a bit?" Ron asked.

"Skate?"

"Yeah, Bill will strengthen the ice for us and we go skating." Ron explained.

Memories of falling and being pushed down on the ice by his cousin and his gang flashed through Harry's mind. Before he could think of a cogent argument, Ginny bounded up to them, "So are we skating?"

Caught up in her excitement and thinking that he would agree to anything that kept that smile on her face, Harry replied, "Sure, it sounds great."

Fleur, Remus and to Harry's surprise Mrs. Weasley joined them by the pond. As Ron had explained, Bill strengthened the ice while Remus conjured up some fairy lights as the morning's clear sky was giving way to late afternoon shadows.

Mrs. Weasley erected a small shelter complete with a small fire and a table with benches. Ron dug around in his father's shed and came up with a pile of ice skates. After everyone found a pair of skates they liked, Bill adjusted the size they fit.

Harry stepped cautiously onto the ice and was pleasantly surprised that he remembered more than he thought he did. Mrs. Weasley watched as the others raced around the ice. Ron with his long legs was able to beat the rest, but Harry was pleased that he didn't do too badly.

As dusk fell, Mrs. Weasley who had gone inside to start dinner returned with a radio and turned on the WWN. The twins and Mr. Weasley joined them out by the pond as they arrived home from work.

Harry skated to the edge of the pond and made his way to the shelter where Mrs. Weasley had set out hot chocolate as well as warm spiced pumpkin juice.

"Are you having fun, dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked casting a warming charm on him as she had to all who entered the shelter.

"This is great," Harry replied truthfully sipping his hot chocolate. "This has been a really fun day."

He watched as the Weasley siblings skating around the pond, a feeling of great contentment washed over him. He did wish that Hermione could have been here as well, but he knew that was impossible with the current tension between her and Ron.

He smiled as Remus came and sat down next to him. "You skate very well."

"Thank you," Remus smiled. "My mother and I used to skate at a pond near our home, very much like this one. I haven't skated in years though."

"I've never had so much fun skating before," Harry admitted. "My cousin never let me enjoy skating much when we were kids."

A shadow crossed over Remus's face at the mention of Harry's less than happy childhood, but soon the two of them were busy catching up.

"Harry!"

He turned to see Ginny skating near the edge of the pond. She gestured to him, "Come on out on the ice."

After telling Remus he would talk to him later, Harry joined Ginny out on the ice. As they neared the center of the pond, his favourite Weird Sisters' song came on.

Without even thinking about it, Harry reached out for Ginny. She smiled up at him as she settled in his arms. He stumbled slightly but managed not to fall, "It's not as easy as dancing."

Ginny laughed, "It's not, but it is still fun."

Harry pulled her closer as Bill and Fleur and Mr. and Mrs. Weasley joined them out on the ice. Even the thought that she had a boyfriend, couldn't take away from Harry's enjoyment of the perfect day.

* * *

><p>Harry tugged at his too tight dress robes, he felt uncomfortable and a bit heavy in his Polyjuiced body. He wished that it didn't have to be this way. It would have been wonderful to have been able to attend the wedding in his own body and as Ginny's date.<p>

A frown crossed his face as he saw one of Fleur's relatives lead Ginny out onto the dance floor. She looked so beautiful, he really couldn't blame the bloke for the dazed look on his face as he looked at her.

The sight of Ron dancing with Hermione sent a wave of anger through him. It wasn't fair. He knew it wasn't Ron's fault, but the promise he'd made to Ron to leave Ginny alone was making him miserable. He really wanted to be the one to dance with Ginny and he wanted to be the only one to make her laugh.

Resolutely, he turned his back to the dance floor and looked at the guests sitting at the tables. He caught sight of an older man with whispy white hair sitting by himself, the man looked familiar. Elphias Doge, that's who he was. Harry made his way over to the table where the older man was sitting.

* * *

><p>"Ron!" Harry called impatiently. "Are you ready, yet?"<p>

"I'll be out in a minute, calm down," Ron called back. He walked out of his room to find his best mate pacing the sitting room of the flat they shared.

"Finally!"

"Don't worry," Ron teased. "It's not like Ginny will leave without you."

Not bothering to respond, Harry hurried toward the fireplace to Floo to the Burrow. The two arrived to find Mr. and Mrs. Weasley waiting in the kitchen dressed in their finest dress robes. To Harry's relief, Ginny was not down yet.

Mrs. Weasley smiled as each boy greeted her with a kiss on the cheek. "Don't you boys both look nice. The girls should be down soon."

"See, Harry. I told we still had time," Ron said as he grabbed a few biscuits from the kitchen counter.

"Are you nervous, Harry dear?" Mrs. Weasley asked kindly as she watched the young man fidget.

Harry looked up startled, "A bit. I wish they wouldn't make such a fuss. Why do we need a ceremony and medals? I only did what needed to be done, I don't see how I deserve a medal."

Ron rolled his eyes, he'd been hearing variations on the same theme since they had announced the Victory Ball three months ago. Harry had initially tried to refuse his Order of Merlin, but Kingsley had eventually talked him into it.

While Harry was the only one receiving an Order of Merlin, first class; Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny, Luna, Mrs. Weasley, and Professor McGonagall were also being honoured with their own Orders of Merlin. At Harry's insistence, Orders of Merlin, third class, were being awarded posthumously to all of those who died in the Battle of Hogwarts. Kingsley had even nominated Cedric and Sirius for medals and they would be awarded as well. A separate ceremony was planned for next week to honour all of those who died in the war.

"Mate, you know you can't get out of it," Ron laughed. "Kingsley agreed to delay the ball until Christmas hols so Ginny could come, what more do you want?"

Harry blushed, he knew it could have been much worse. The Victory Ball committee had originally wanted to hold the ball in October, but Harry had protested as Ginny would not have been able to attend.

A noise roused him from his musing. He caught his breath as he saw Ginny heading down the stairs towards him. Without realizing what he was doing, Harry slowly walked towards her. She looked beautiful in a brilliant green gown. It had a fitted bodice and it flared out over her hips flowing gracefully to the floor.

"You look so beautiful," Harry whispered as he softly kissed her.

"Thank you, love," Ginny replied giving him another tender kiss.

Relaxing for the first time that day, Harry looked around. Hermione had come down shortly after Ginny and was standing with Ron.

"You look nice, Hermione." Harry said easily as he kissed her on the cheek.

"Thanks, Harry." Hermione replied with a smile. She had managed to tame her hair into a upswept hair style and wore a flowing dark blue gown. "We are going to get my parents and we will meet you at the ball."

All too soon for Harry's taste they had arrived at the Victory Ball. Walking into the ball with Ginny on his arm had caused a huge stir with the photographers waiting outside. Blinking a bit from the flashing of the cameras, Harry smiled down at Ginny.

"I'm glad you are here," He whispered. Without even thinking he leaned down to kiss her causing a frenzy of flashing from the photographers.

Somehow with Ginny's help he managed to get through the long ceremony and speeches, including the short speech that Ginny and Hermione had helped him write. To his relief it was finally time to open the ball.

Unlike the Yule ball of several years earlier, Harry was happy and proud to open the Victory Ball. As he lead the love of his life onto the dance floor, Harry reflected that he was really glad Ginny had pulled him onto the dance floor all those years ago.


End file.
